Power of healthy partnerships
Author: Local Government Chronicle |
Chief executives are hired because they are exceptional people who can handle the pressures of the top job. But in the wake of the recession and the Total Place ‘whole area approach’, the spotlight is on their ability to work in company with other leaders across their patch.
It seems obvious there should be some specific development to help. In fact such help is rare.
Chief executives from local authorities, primary care trusts and acute trusts in Calderdale and Kirklees set up their own programme, Leading as Peers.
?We were hamstrung by our individual governance arrangements but we felt we had to do it,? says South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust chief executive Steven Michael.
?We were facing a particularly challenging financial climate, with flat cash. And it’s coming to the fore now that you can’t see success in local communities unless there are honest relationships at the heart of them.?
The project began with five workshops involving four chief executives, facilitated by Leeds University’s centre for innovation in health management.
In a research paper for the project, the centre provides a frank description of ?peer working? at its worst, based on interviews with senior managers in the north of England.
?It is often a euphemism for working with someone you see as inferior, but need. Mostly they think they’d rather do it alone – all peer working is a compromise,? the paper says.
It also describes peer working at its best. ?They were clear what they wanted to hold out for together and about their agreed bottom line. This clarity pervaded into agreements, and they followed it through – calling each other to account if anyone strayed. They thrashed out their ‘togetherness’.?
One workshop focused on identity, for example how ?followership? – amplifying or supporting a colleague’s idea – was actually leadership. Another looked at language – the four used different words, but were usually talking about the same things and shared the same values.
A further session looked at system accountability – how leaders behaved when their organisations were going through a turbulent time and they were pulled away from collaboration.
?We started to tease out what we are trying to achieve, where we have common ground and where there is real difference,? says Calderdale MBC chief executive Owen Williams.
Six success criteria for the programme are:
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Shaping the regional and national agenda so that it supports collaboration;
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Delivering quality services that are fully engaged with service users and carers;
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A local system that suits all stakeholders;
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Delivering within financial resources;
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Using collective resources to deliver the quality and productivity challenge;
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Genuine partnership based on consistent values, and the maxim ?at least do no harm? to each other.
This list has had a major impact. Joint change programmes that would once have been impossible are now going ahead.
One is the Transforming Community Services bid put together by Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust.
Initially each planned to bid separately, but NHS Calderdale suggested they team up with each other and its own provider arm.
?I could have a conversation with the others and say as a commissioner, why don’t you think about doing it this way, and I would support you. It wouldn’t have happened without this work – the trusts would have been competing against each other. The system isn’t geared up to reward this sort of leadership, which focuses on co-operation,? says NHS Calderdale chief executive Rob Webster.
?Co-operation isn’t just giving in and being soft. But by having a place we can go and talk things through we can get issues resolved.?